November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 60 days remaining.

Events

0-1499

• 996 - Emperor Otto III issues a deed to Gottschalk, Bishop of Freising, which is the oldest known document using the name Ostarrîchi (Austria in Old High German).

1500-1899

• 1512 - The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.
• 1521 - The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America, connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, was first navigated by Ferdinand Magellan during his global circumnavigation voyage.
• 1530 - An approximated 400,000 die after the Netherlands' dikes fail.
• 1604 - At Whitehall Palace in London, the William Shakespeare tragedy Othello is presented for the first time.
• 1611 - At Whitehall Palace in London, William Shakespeare's romantic comedy The Tempest is presented for the first time.
• 1683 - The British crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties.
• 1755 - Lisbon earthquake: In Portugal, Lisbon is destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between sixty and ninety thousand people.
• 1765 - The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the 13 colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America.
• 1800 - US President John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).
• 1848 - In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with Boston University School of Medicine), opens.
• 1859 - The current Cape Lookout, North Carolina, lighthouse was lighted for the first time. Its first-order Fresnel lens can be seen for nineteen miles.
• 1861 - American Civil War: US President Abraham Lincoln appoints George McClellan as commander of the Union Army, replacing the aged General Winfield Scott.
• 1870 - In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast.
• 1876 - New Zealand's provincial government system is dissolved.
• 1894 - Nicholas II becomes the new Tsar of Russia after his father, Alexander III, dies.
• 1896 - A picture showing the naked breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time.

1900-1999

• 1914 - World War I: Battle of Coronel fought. This is the first British naval defeat of the war.
• 1918 - Malbone Street Wreck: the worst rapid transit accident in world history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 dead.
• 1922 - The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, abdicates.
• 1939 - The first rabbit born after artificial insemination is shown to the world.
• 1943 - World War II: Operation Goodtime launched - United States Marines invade Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
• 1944 - World War II: Operation Infatuate launched - The Allies land at Walcheren.
• 1948 - 6,000 are killed as a Chinese merchant ship explodes and sinks off southern Manchuria.
• 1950 - Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman.
• 1951 - US soldiers are exposed to an atomic explosion for training purposes in Desert Rock, Nevada; participation was not voluntary.
• 1952 - Operation Ivy - The United States successfully detonates the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike" ["m" for megaton], at Eniwetok island in the Bikini atoll located in the Pacific Ocean.
• 1954 - The Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence.
• 1955 - A United Airlines DC-6B exploded in mid-air and crashed near Longmont, Colorado killing 44 people
• 1960 - While campaigning for President of the United States, John F. Kennedy announces his idea of the Peace Corps.
• 1963 - The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opened.
• 1963 - President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam was overthrown and executed in a coup d'état led by General Duong Van Minh.
• 1969 - After seven years off the top of the charts, Elvis Presley's song "Suspicious Minds," hits No. 1 on the Billboard Music charts.
• 1973 - Watergate Scandal: Leon Jaworski is appointed as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor.
• 1981 - Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1990 - Sandra Miller is awarded 100 US dollar for battery after an incident in which Mike Tyson grabbed her breasts and insulted her; the jury found Tyson's behaviour "not outrageous".
• 1993 - The Maastricht Treaty activates, formally establishing the European Union.
• 1994 - George Lucas leaves the day-to-day operations of his filmmaking business and starts a sabbatical (while on sabbatical, he wrote the prequel Star Wars trilogy).
• 1994 - The Chijon Family is sentenced to death in South Korea for murdering and eating five people.
• 1998 - The European Court of Human Rights is instituted.

Births

1300-1899

• 1339 - Rudolf IV of Austria (d. 1365)
• 1351 - Duke Leopold III of Austria
• 1778 - Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (d. 1837)
• 1798 - Sir Henry Lee Guinness, brewer
• 1808 - John Taylor, American religious leader
• 1871 - Stephen Crane, writer (d. 1900)
• 1877 - Roger Quilter, composer (d. 1953)
• 1880 - Alfred Wegener, meteorologist, geophysicist (d. 1930)
• 1880 - Sholom Asch, writer (d. 1957)
• 1880 - Grantland Rice, sports writer (d. 1954)
• 1886 - Hermann Broch, Austrian author (d. 1951)
• 1892 - Alexander Alekhine, chess player (d. 1946)

1900-1999

• 1902 - Eugen Jochum, conductor (d. 1987)
• 1923 - Gordon R. Dickson, science fiction author (d. 2001)
• 1923 - Victoria de los Angeles, Catalan soprano
• 1929 - Betsy Palmer, actress
• 1934 - William Mathias, composer (d. 1992)
• 1935 - Gary Player, golfer
• 1940 - Ramesh Chandra Lahoti, Chief Justice of India
• 1942 - Ralph Klein, Premier of Alberta
• 1943 - Salvatore Adamo Belgian/Italian singer
• 1952 - Larry Flynt, magazine publisher
• 1957 - Lyle Lovett, singer
• 1957 - Carlos Paião, Portuguese singinr (d. 1988)
• 1962 - Anthony Kiedis, singer
• 1963 - Rick Allen, Def Leppard drummer
• 1967 - Sophie B. Hawkins, musician
• 1972 - Toni Collette, actress

Deaths

• 1894 - Alexander III, Tsar of Russia
• 1903 - Theodor Mommsen, author and recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1902
• 1924 - William Tilghman, frontier marshal
• 1963 - Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam
• 1972 - Ezra Pound, poet
• 1979 - Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States
• 1982 - King Vidor, film director
• 1982 - James Broderick, actor
• 1983 - Anthony van Hoboken, musicologist
• 1985 - Phil Silvers, actor, comedian
• 1999 - Walter Payton, American football player
• 2002 - Käte Jaenicke, actress

Holidays

• National holiday of Algeria
• Catholicism - Holy Day of Obligation All Saints Day. Holiday in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Lithuania and Croatia.
• Lá Samhna the traditional first day of Winter in modern Ireland, see also Samhain
• Mexico and United States - The Day of the Dead
• World Vegan Day

October 31 - November 2 - October 1 - December 1 - more historical anniversaries